Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2: Pruned Edition

Ever since I walked out of the theater after watching Guardians of the Galaxy 2, I knew it was a good film that would be great with some editing. I knew it didn't need an intense regrade or reordering of the scenes, moreso just a good trim to cut out some excess. Come a few months after the films release, and rb has taken that style of editing and applied it to the film with great effectiveness.

Every cut that is made here runs smoothly, and creates no feeling of a lost scene or newly formed plot inconsistency. What is removed takes a strong "less is more" approach towards pruning the movie of jokes or other moments that went on too long, making the movie run at a stronger pace that the theatrical version. Also, the removal of some key lines helped this fanedit to stay away from undercutting the tone or importance of what was going on, something the official cut struggled on in moments.

What we have left with the removal of these lines and scenes is a Guardians film that runs about the same length as the first one and recaptures that great pace of strong emotional beats and laugh out loud moments. The film no longer feels that it is trying too hard to recapture the humor of the first one. Rather, it just proves itself as a strong sequel that now has tighter editing that allows you to appreciate the big picture and more sharply feel the intended emotions of some scenes and character interactions. I can't recommend this cut enough if you loved Guardians 2, were disappointed in it, or are just looking to see what a different cut of the movie would feel like.

When GotG2 was announced I was apprehensive, but cautiously optimistic. I think the first Guardians might be the best movie Marvel has put out, and one of the best action adventure films in the last decade. With the sequel I think they built on the characters very well, but the movie still felt bloated. The filmmakers wanted make you feel the struggles of the characters, but it's like they had a specific ratio of jokes that they had to adhere to. Plus they had to include a lot of baby groot, the cute mascot of the film.

RB's edit fixes pretty much all of my problems with the film. He delivered on all his promises in the change list. Plus this edit is incredibly smooth! I never felt like a scene was too long, or too short. The deletion of few longer jokes and gags really helped sell the more dramatic moments. It's nothing too drastic but it made me take certain situations a bit more seriously. My only complaint is the audio. Fight scenes would be noticeably louder than dialogue or musical scenes. I wasn't turning the volume up and down constantly, so it wasn't that bad. Overall, the 'Pruned Edition' of GotG2 turns a fine sequel into leaner, meaner, more emotionally resonant sequel. As of right now, I prefer this version to the original. But I'll have to compare the two in depth to know for sure.

Unquestionably a tighter, better edited version of the GOTG2 than the one we got in theatres. The emotional stakes (and stunning FX that I'd forgotten were so impressive, looking at you, arcade game space fleet shootout) are front-and-center here with a lot of the self-indulgent banter chopped down. My only negative criticism is that the extreme editing on Ego's plan, while mostly done incredibly well, seems to rob the climax of some of its far-reaching power and stakes since we never see for ourselves the scope of his plan. But a change I'm happy to live with if it makes the film feel more personal. I hope we see more from "rb" before long, this edit shows a lot of potential.

I'm going to try to be specific in offering points that are not in many of the other reviews here. Essentially, what everyone echoes again and again is that a lot of the longer humorous scenes are cut down. True. Perhaps because a specific cutlist was not published, people seem not to have realized a lot of other things that were cut alongside this, but they stood out for me:
-Peter and Gamora's relationship is altered to be more aggressive, less romantic
-explanation of Ego leaving eggs all over the universe is missing, now we're just suddenly watching a random Dairy Queen blow up for no reason
-the seeds of jokes and comments are removed, making other lines come from nowhere and seem random and/or mean, such as: Drax telling Mantis his impression of her, Peter being called "pathetic" as a thread, seeding Yondu's Mary Poppins rescue moment, there being a limited number of spacesuits and packs, and many more

As well as the things that are missing, there are still beats included which don't let the serious moments breathe and instead immediately undercut them with a joke. Nebula taking over the pirates and then eating a too-bitter radish, Yondu's funeral being immediately followed with Kraglin playing with his arrow, his burial having MULTIPLE shots of silly objects being placed around him, etc. Yes, it's a funny film, but it's also a film with heart, and there's still a lot more room to let those moments have their spotlight.

And on the other hand, there are still more cuts that would help the edit. Sure, you probably need to leave the giant Pac-Man in, but can't the game sound be removed? Do you need so many jokes of Baby Groot bringing random objects to the cell? Such a long, oblivious argument between Rocket and Quill while their friends get sucked out the back of the ship and Nebula crawls around trying to eat a radish??

In the end, this edit is six of one and half a dozen of the other for me. I think it comes down to if you just want a version of GotG V2 that's 15 minutes shorter. There are points for and against watching this version instead of the theatrical, but I suspect most people will end up being forgiving because the story moves faster. On a rewatch, the jagged edges and tonal imbalances that result from that might not be very consequential. For me though, they were.